Chapter 23: Push Hard
As soon as everyone was on board, the steam carriages started moving again, trundling down the rough dirt road and out toward the grasslands and open fields that surrounded their destination.
Once they were out of the trees, they should be relatively safe from attack, as the town guard patrols would be able to see and intercept any threats that might be coming their way.
Or so Dominic had hoped.
Instead, what they found was an ongoing battle between the guards and a much larger band of goblins, along with nearly two dozen destroyed carriages.
The guards saw the wagon caravan emerge from the road behind the goblin force, picking up speed as the road's quality improved closer to town, and began to frantically wave them forward before the lead steam tractor could try to stop.
"Don't stop. Whatever you do, don't stop. Once you're behind the lines, you will be safe." The guard Captain yelled as the caravan approached.
The team leader shouted back down the line of vehicles as he got the command. "You heard the man, keep the speed up. Ranged fighters, give it your all. Everyone else, protect the wheels. Don't let them get us bogged down, or we will be stuck in the trees."
The first vehicle cleared the tree line a second later, and the gunner on the second carriage began to rain bullets on the Goblins. Dominic had never seen a skill like that before, and the gunner hadn't used it during the last battle, but it was magnificent.
They fired until their guns were empty, and then reloaded in the blink of an eye and did it again.